Some South Hayward BART parking could shift to city streets

HAYWARD -- BART and city planners are considering a plan to designate parking for transit patrons on three main thoroughfares near the South Hayward BART station.

The proposal is an attempt to deal with parked cars that will overflow onto city streets as the result of a plan to build housing at the station. As originally envisioned, the housing was to be built on an existing BART overflow parking lot, and the 174 vehicles that park in the overflow lot -- along with 125 more that now park on nearby streets -- would move to a new garage.

But plans for the garage have been scrapped, at least for now, because of the loss of redevelopment money and the economic downturn.

To accommodate those 300 cars, a revised proposal calls for on-street BART-only parking along stretches of Tennyson Road, Mission Boulevard and Dixon Street near the station, the first time the transit agency has considered designated parking on city streets, said Alicia Trost, a BART spokeswoman.

Those living close to the station would be issued free parking permits for their neighborhoods. In addition, BART will start charging for parking in its South Hayward station lots. The City Council got a look at the revised plan at a work session Tuesday.

Both Mayor Michael Sweeney and Councilman Greg Jones said enforcing the parking regulations on city streets would be crucial to making the plan work.

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Assistant City Manager Kelly McAdoo said funding is available for a full-time person to enforce parking. The money would come from parking fees and citations.

"Is that person going to work 24 hours?" Sweeney asked, saying that at least two parking positions would be needed.

The project would create a joint powers authority between Hayward and BART to manage all the parking around the station.

BART patrons parking both in the station lot -- currently free -- and in designated areas on the three streets, would be charged $1 a day, Trost said. Reserved daily parking would be $3, and monthly parking passes would be $42.

Councilwoman Barbara Halliday said she had concerns about the safety of people walking to their cars on city streets after dark. She also noted that the downtown Hayward BART garage, where there is no parking fee, already is filling up, and she predicted that things would get worse there.

The parking district proposal must be approved by both the BART board and the City Council, which will consider it Feb. 19. The BART board is tentatively scheduled to take up the matter in late February, Trost said.

The original South Hayward BART transit-area development project called for 788 apartments, a grocery store and a 910-space parking garage. That has been scaled back to 203 condominiums and 151 affordable-housing apartments, and no garage or grocery, though those could be added later if the economy improves.